The present invention relates to the field of vehicle safety systems. More particularly, the invention relates to the field of safety systems for vehicles with gas operated appliances.
Appliances, such as ovens, heaters, refrigerators, hot water heaters, and electrical power generators, are available for use in vehicles. These vehicles can be recreation type vehicles such as RV's, vans, boats, campers, trailers, as well as food service or other commercial vehicles. For various reasons, it is popular to power these types of appliances in vehicles with a gas fuel, such as propane or natural gas.
An example of a food service vehicle with a gas powered oven is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,836, to Abbott et al. and assigned to the same
as the present application. This patent describes a pizza preparation and delivery system which is designed to deliver restaurant quality pizzas to the consumer's home or business. The entire disclosure of this '836 patent is incorporated herein by reference. The system described in this patent includes vehicles which were not only adapted to deliver the pizza, but also adapted to assemble and cook the pizza while in transit. Each vehicle in this system was equipped with a refrigerated case for storing pizza shells, a preparation station with pizza toppings to create an assembled pizza, and a propane powered conveyor oven for cooking the assembled pizza.
The vehicles used in the preferred embodiment described in the '836 patent were modified FORD E-350 trucks with a van type body mounted thereon. Each vehicle included a driver's station and a kitchen area. A cook's chair was put in the kitchen area and the vehicle was laid out so that, while seated in the cook's chair, the cook could reach the pizza assembly station, the oven, and the cutting table. A door was provided in the side of the van for the cook to exit the vehicle and deliver the pizza to he door of the customer. Preferably, the vehicle of the '836 patent would be manned by a driver and a cook so that the driver could drive and the cook could remain in the cook's chair to assemble, cook, box and cut pizzas. Naturally, when the vehicle of the '836 was manned by a single worker, the driver would have to find a place to park the vehicle while he moved back to the kitchen area to prepare pizzas to be cooked. Also, the lone operator would have to park in order to remove the cooked pizza from the oven.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,556,046, to Riffel et al. and also assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describe an improved ventilation system for a pizza preparation and delivery vehicle such as that described in the '836 patent. The entire disclosure of the '046 patent is also incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,167, to Brewer and also assigned to the assignee of the present invention, described a further improvement to the ventilation system for an oven within a pizza preparation and delivery vehicle. By the time the application for the '167 patent was filed, the preferred vehicle had been downsized to a typical full-size van, such as the FORD "Econoline". The kitchen layout was the same in the '167 patent as in the '836 and '046. That is, the new vehicle included a driver's station and a kitchen area with a cook's chair and a conveyor oven. The new vehicle also included a separate electrical generator.
Co-pending U.S. Pat. Application Ser. No. 258,969 describes a compact pizza preparation and delivery vehicle which has solved some of the problems mentioned above. In particular, a vehicle which is less costly to purchase, operate, and maintain is described therein. One feature of the described embodiment is that the overall vehicle is much smaller in size. Another feature is that the vehicle does no require a separate generator to supply electrical power to the equipment on the vehicle.
One of the challenges in the development of the described vehicle was that of providing a safety system for the vehicle. Tat is, it was considered critical that the vehicle be absolutely safe even in the face of a collision, rollover, gas leak or fire.